Alteration & Renovation (MoSU) - Project Summary Morehead State University (MoSU) has been a regional comprehensive partner institution of the Kentucky INBRE organization (KBRIN) since 2002. MoSU?s collaboration with KBRIN has been extremely productive in both enhancing faculty productivity in grant funding from the NIH, and in supporting student biomedical research experiences. The goal of the Alteration and Renovation project proposed by MoSU is to increase its capacity to conduct up-to-date molecular, cellular, developmental, and neurobiology research with students. This will be accomplished by the renovation and alteration of one large, 1700 ft2, 50 year-old teaching laboratory into two research-capable spaces. Faculty benefitting from this alteration will primarily include one currently NIH AREA R15-funded MoSU professor as well as a newly assistant professor to be named (hiring currently underway in March 2018). Specifically, this project will focus on renovating and altering an existing chemistry lab located in Lappin Hall, a life science building at MoSU. Currently, this rectangular room is configured for a teaching laboratory, with 3 long benches each containing a central water trough, and deteriorating cabinetry. First, these items will be removed, and a wall installed across the middle of the rectangular room to form two laboratories. Then, replacement shelving, cabinetry, flooring, and sinks containing eyewashes and hand-held showers will be installed. As no deionized water is available in this room for molecular biological work, the project will install a deionized water line to this laboratory and a tied-in benchtop ultrapure water purification system. Numerous upgrades to the infrastructure will include additional connections to the MoSU Ethernet to coordinate modern instrumentation for data acquisition and analysis, and backup electrical connections for uninterrupted power to freezers. Two freezers and a refrigerator will add to the functionality of the newly formed Lappin Hall 424 from the existing 423 room. Two small dedicated use anterooms will be outfitted with storage shelving and a dishwasher for (i) general chemical storage and lab clean-up, and (ii) delicate task wet-lab work including the vertebrate surgical procedures and embryo injections used by current MoSU faculty member. As the only other dedicated biomedical research space in Lappin Hall is a 2,300 ft2 interdisciplinary molecular biology that is currently shared by five other faculty and their students, MoSU needs this proposed renovation to continue to grow its biomedical research capacity. Through this project, MoSU will significantly enhance the facilities in which biologists will be able to conduct modern, relevant research, offer biomedical research opportunities to students, and contribute to the future funding success of MoSU investigators.